Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
Learning Disabilities (LD) are defined as a condition giving rise to difficulties in acquiring knowledge and skills to the normal level expected of those of the same age. In simplier terms, neurological disorders that can make it difficult to acquire certain academic and social skills. Each LD varies in their expression and in the way they impact individuals. More than 2.4 million students are diagnosed with LD and recieve special education services through schools. This is approximately 41% of students with disabilities nationwide.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
Usually, LD do not correlate with health issues, such as being sick. However, some LD's can leade to mental health problems - Anxiety, Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorde (ADHD).
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
Difficulty with basic reading and language skills are the most common symptoms. They are often hereditary and are passed down from generation to generation. Here are a few characteristics of LD in the classroom: response to questions are delayed, slow vocabulary growth, difficulty rhyming words, trouble learning numbers, letters, shapes, colors, and days of the week, struggle to follow routines, and fine motor skills are delayed. Depending on the severity of the LD case, some children may never learn to speaking and can become fully dependent on others for the necesities.
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
Rejection to be social with peers is a problem with children who have LD. Body language and facial expressions are hard for child with LD to interpret. The students do not understand when a friend is kidding and take it the wrong way. Most kids with LD give inapporpriate responses due to not understanding the social norm.
Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
There is no definition for emotional/behavioral disorders that is universally accepted. What can be agreed upon is that students with emotional/behavioral disorders share the following three elements: Extreme behavior, chronic behavior, and a violation of social or cultural expectations. Experts have divided students with emotional/behavioral disordered into those with an externalizing disorder and those with an internalizing disorder. Students who exhibit externalizing behaviors tend to be aggressive and act out, disrupting the class. On the other hand, students with internalizing disorders tend to be depressed, anxious and keep to themselves. Emotional/behavior disorder is a high incidence disorder, affecting one percent of students in public schools. The etiology of this disability is thought to have both biological and environmental roots. Biologically speaking, prenatal drug exposure and genetics correlate with emotional/behavioral disorder prevalence. Environmentally, children exposed to domestic violence, poverty, neglect, or a combination are found to be more at risk for emotional/behavioral disorder.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
These students are very heterogeneous and do not share physical characteristics. These students are at a higher risk for suicide and violence, which poses a risk to their health. Some students will be on medications that have been prescribed by their psychiatrist to manage their symptoms. The teacher should be aware of this but should never provide the student with his or her dosage.
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
Students with emotional/behavioral disorder are typically not high-achieving and usually have a low to average IQ. They usually have deficiencies in reading and mathematics, a struggle that is compounded by learning disabilities and language delays, which are very common among these learners. As a group, students with emotional/behavioral disorder are also much less likely to graduate high school and have an extremely high rate of absenteeism.
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
These learners tend to exhibit the following characteristics in the classroom (if they represent the externalizing subcategory): Impulsive, bullying, self-injurious, constantly absent, preoccupied, inattentive, resistance to change, difficulty following rules, dishonesty, low self-esteem and difficulty working in groups. Teachers must focus on changing specific behaviors - discouraging the unwanted behaviors and encouraging the correct behaviors. Students with emotional/behavior disorder are known to have difficulty interacting with and maintaining relationships with both peers and adults. They may lash out aggressively towards others or be socially withdrawn, which prevents the formation of friendships. The lack of healthy relationships that these children have adversely affects their academic achievement and has a negative impact on their self-esteem.
Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
Deaf is defined as a “hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.” Individuals are classified as deaf if their hearing loss exceeds 70 dBs. This is a low-incidence disability, accounting for 1.2 percent of all students with disabilities. In more than half of the cases of hearing loss in children, the cause is unknown. In the instances where the cause is known, genetic or hereditary factors, Down syndrome, infections, cytomegalovirus, and possibly low birth weight, prematurity, anoxia, meningitis, head injuries, and side effects of some antibiotics are believed to be the culprit.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
Many individuals that are non-hearing use hearing aids, which are visible on the ear. This group of learners is very diverse and doesn’t share many physical characteristics. Several health issues such as infections and viruses can cause hearing loss, but once a child has acquired deafness or hearing loss, his or her health is no longer affected by the impairment.
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
While non-hearing students are not limited in their cognitive abilities, the development of their speech and language is usually delayed which causes difficulties in succeeding in school. These learners average three to four grade levels below their appropriate grade level due to their hindered language development. The subject that is most affected by their hearing impairment is reading. The degree at which these students can use verbal speech as a primary mode for language acquisition depends on the extent of the hearing loss and the age of onset. The psychosocial implications for non-hearing children include feelings of isolation which can lead to depression. They may feel left out if they cannot communicate easily with their peers.
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
These learners will have difficulty following verbal instructions, interacting with their hearing peers, acting as a leader, and expressing themselves orally. They also may become frustrated easily and be teased by their peers. A language delay is inevitable which will require intensive, individualized instruction.
National Association of Special Education Teachers: Hearing Impairments. (n.d.). National Association of Special Education Teachers: Teachers Teaching Exceptional Children. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://www.naset.org/hearingimpairments2.0.html
Blind/Vision
Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
Blind is the state of being blind or lacking sight in one or both eyes. It is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors. There are severeal types of blindness: complete blindness, color blindness, and night blindness. Each of these have very different side effects and definitions. Complete blindness is characterized as complete and total loss of vision, "legally blind". Color blindness, also called dyschromatopsia, causes people to be unable to distinguish certain colors. Night blindness is impaired vision in the night or when the lights are dim. All three are severe and should be diagnosed through an optometrist.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
Blindness can be genetic or inherited from family members. Not only can genes develop blindness, but health problems and accidents can cause a person to go blind or loose partial vision. One type of health problem that can cause blindness is diabetes. Also, such eye diseases as cataracts, conjunctivis (pinkeye), glaucoma, and retinal disorders can cause cloudy vision all the way to complete blindness if not taken care of by a doctor. Not all eye disorders have symptoms, regular check-ups with your eye doctor will prevent these problems from progressing.
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
People who are blind have to find new ways of learning, whether it be listening to a recording of a book or learning to read braille, it is all a challenge. Braille is a form of written language for the blind, in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with the fingertips. This is used all around the globe and is a successful learning method for blind persons. Some who are not legally blind can use things such as desktop magnifiers to maximize lettering in books and on computers, however, this is a slow method that doesn't allow you to skim or scan text.
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
Blindness causes hearing and speech problems making it very hard for those to communicate with others. One way of communication is by sign language in a hand, because the person cannot see the movement of the fingers, you must do so in the palm of the hand. Braille is an aternative to sign language, but can also take long periods of time to learn.
Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
A universal definition of mental retardation is hard to pin point because so many different people have views on what it is and it varies case by case. Our textbook defines Mental Retardation as significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Mental retardation occurs in about 2.5-3% of the general population. In mild retardation the child's IQ score usually ranges from 50-75 and in moderate cases, the score usually ranges from 35-55. Approximately 85% of the mentally retarded population have mild retardation. For many of these individuals, there is no specific cause of their developmental delay. The major causes of mental retardation are genetics, prenatal illness/issues, childhood illnes/injury and environmental factors. More times than not, mental retardation is genetic.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
Mentally retarded children often have trouble with what most would call daily or normal activities such as walking and talking. Mentally retarded individuals often learn these skills much later than the "average" person. Symptoms usually occur at birth or in early childhood. These children sometimes have a lot of aggression which can cause self injury and mood swings. Physical features are not always different with children that are mentally retarded. It often varies from case to case. Some times in the instance of down syndrome, facial features may appear more round or flat.
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
The two main limitations that individuals with mental retardation suffer from are intellectual functions and adaptive behavior. Limitations in intellectual functioning often includes difficulty with memory recall, task and skill generalization and sometimes have low motivation and learned helplessness. Adaptive behavior can cause issues with conceptual, social and practical skills. Students with mental retardation are likely to fall more and more behind their peers socially and academically the older they get. These children will typically work slower than a "normal" students.
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
Depending on the type of mental retardation, communication can sometimes be extremely difficult for individuals with this disease. These children often develop slower than others and can sometimes have speech problems and are not up to speed with talking. It can sometimes be hard to understand the child or for the child to understand you. Children with mild retardation cannot always comprehend as well as they should at the age they are at, so they may not know what you are talking about. They can often be repetitive with their words.
Textbook- Teaching in Today's Inclusive Classrooms
Traumatic Brain Injury
Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
Traumatic brain injury is an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or patrial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgement; problem solving; sensory; perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; phsycial functions; information processing; and speech. This term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma. (Defined by Teaching in Today's Inclusive Classrooms) Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is normally caused by falls, motor vehicle accidents, struck by or against events, and assaults.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
Some physical characteristics of traumatic brain injury is change in mood, sensory changes, blurred vision, ringing ears, headaches, dizziness, and decreased level of consciousness, nausea, vomiting, sleep disturbance, and fatigue.
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
Physical and sensory changes are common. The injury depends on the age of the student and the severity and location of the injury. Some students experience minimal changes while others experiences dramatic changes of learning in the classroom. The student's learning behaviors may show long after the student has recovered from the injury. This injury results in cognitive and learning characteristics;
Cognitive/Learning:
Long and short-term memory problems
Attentional disorders
Organizational and planning difficulties
Uneven academic abilities
Impaired oral and written language
Problem solving and abnormal reasoning deficits
Perseveration
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
Some behavior issues caused by traumatic brain injury are unexpected conflicts with peers, inappropritate or impulsive behaivor in class, disrespectful behavior in relation to the teacher, excessive moodiness, unexpected mood swings, excessive tiredness, as well as;
Social/Emotional:
Mood swings
Depression
Heightened irritability
Diminished motivation
Increased aggressiveness
Difficulty responding appropriately to social cues
Decreased impulse control
Difficulty adapting to changes in routines or schedule
Federal Definition of the Disability – Major Components, Including Incidence and etiology
Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (b)(4) of this section.
Typical Physical Characteristics of the Disability / Health Issues
Myclonal jerks, jerky and involuntary movements, poor hand-eye coordination, limb apraxia (difficulty making certain movements with an arm or leg), problems with intentional movements, abnormal gait and posture, toe walking, clumsiness, difficulty with sitting, lying, crawling, and walking, unusual sweating, rashes/itching, abnormal reaction to sensory stimuli, and difficulty chewing and/or swallowing.
Typical Learning Characteristics and/or Effects Of The Disability On Development And Learning
Common learning characteristics associated with autistic children include: visual learners, modeling, Haptic modality (hands-on style of learning), categorizing, Autistic students also are known for talking to self, taking one step at a time, and presents ideas literally.
Common Communication and/or Behavior Issues & Needs
Communication is a big problem for autistic children. Communicative functioning in individuals with autism is often delayed. Verbal and nonverbal skills are both effected by autism. Language development is slow and currently about 50% of individuals never progress to spoken or symbolic communication. Whenever language does develop, the individual my struggle to sustain conversation unless it relates personally to them or abstract topics. Individuals with autism rarely share their emotions. Nonverbal and social skills are also effected such as maintaining eye contact and appropriate personal space. Behavior issues are repetitive movements (hands flapping, rocking back and forth), reactions (Extreme reaction to seemingly benign sensory input and Lack of response to seemingly significant sensory input), body awareness (does not respond to pain normally, slides down stairs instead of stepping), sensory input (jumping, climbing on furniture).
Health Issues
http://www.ncld.org/
Health Issues
Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Children: Characteristics | Education.com. (n.d.). Education.com | An Education & Child Development Site for Parents | Parenting & Educational Resource. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/children-emotional-behavioral-disorders/?page=4
Emotional/Behavioral Disorders | Education.com. (n.d.). Education.com | An Education & Child Development Site for Parents | Parenting & Educational Resource. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/emotionalbehavioral-disorders/
Emotional/Behavioral Disorders. (n.d.). Gallaudet University. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://www.gallaudet.edu/clerc_center/information_and_resources/info_to_go/educate_children_(3_to_21)/students_with_disabilities/emotionalbehavioral_disorders.html
Health Issues
Deafness and Hearing Loss. (n.d.). National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/hearingloss
National Association of Special Education Teachers: Hearing Impairments. (n.d.). National Association of Special Education Teachers: Teachers Teaching Exceptional Children. Retrieved May 27, 2012, from http://www.naset.org/hearingimpairments2.0.html
Health Issues
http://www.livestrong.com/article/121214-different-types-blindness/
(mild/moderate)
Health Issues
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mental+retardation
Textbook- Teaching in Today's Inclusive Classrooms
Health Issues
Cognitive/Learning:
Social/Emotional:
Textbook- Teaching in Today's Inclusive Classrooms
http://www.livestrong.com/article/97104-characteristics-traumatic-brain-injuries/
Health Issues
Behavior issues are repetitive movements (hands flapping, rocking back and forth), reactions (Extreme reaction to seemingly benign sensory input and Lack of response to seemingly significant sensory input), body awareness (does not respond to pain normally, slides down stairs instead of stepping), sensory input (jumping, climbing on furniture).
http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Physical_Characteristics_of_Autism
http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Learning_Characteristics_of_Autism
http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Behavior_Characteristics_of_Autism
http://www.projectidealonline.org/autism.php
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